Wait for Me
by callalily32
Summary: He says, "I will return," and knows she hears his silent 'wait for me.' ...As Kagome lays on her deathbed, Sesshoumaru searches for the one thing that can save her. SessKag


Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha.

oooooooooooo

Kagome waits.

Her hand trembles as she holds what could be her last cup of tea. She registers someone nearby as she coughs. 

_Kagome-chan. Kagome are you alright?_

But she has no answer. How can she? She who sits longingly day after day, night after night. Grasping the thin threads of her life with her withered, shaking hands.

_How much longer?_

How many times has she had that thought? How long has she been saving her strength, hoping, waiting... for him. How many countless seconds have been spent thinking about ways she could have kept him by her side?

But no. Arrogant, proud as always, he had twisted her words, ignored her wishes. And as much as she wants him to be the one holding her hand right now, she loves him enough to understand why he had to leave.

oooooooooooo

Sesshoumaru searches.

Some days it is easier than others, being away from her. With new information the search continues, and he is once again justified. When trails run cold, or he stumbles upon a hot spring she would love, he uses this to remind himself why he must not turn back.

He, who was always her protector, her provider, for once could do nothing to stop Kagome's body from the deterioration of old age.

And now... now he had to take action. He could not stand by idly waiting for the end. Not when he could do something to stop it.

oooooooooooo

As the sky darkens and she prepares herself for yet another night of fitful sleep, Kagome remembers.

She can still see her face in the mirror. Old, wrinkled beyond recognition of the young beauty she once was. Her eyes shut tightly when she hears him enter the room.

On the tip on an indefinable break, she contains the sobs wanting to spill out of her but allows the tears to begin streaming down her face, their tracks well-known.

He sits beside her since there is room for two-- always for two-- and leans down from his still stoic height to kiss the top of her head.

"How can you look at me?" she asks, voice broken. And she knows all his answers already. _Your appearance is of little consequence. There is no one else I wish for. It does not matter._ But despite his words, she knows that deep down, it does. And because she can't do anything to change it, she tries her hardest to accept the lies. Because in the end, it is not truly about her withering features, but the fact that if they accepted what that meant, they would both break.

So she stands as abruptly as she can now, now that her joints protest her every movement, and begins to walk away. _One step. Two steps. _She makes it three steps before she trips on-- on what? there is nothing there-- and before she can decide the best way to land on the hard, stone floor, she feels him.

He moves fast now. In reality, she is sure it is the same speed he has always had, but now to her fading eyesight and reflexes, he seems infinitely faster as he gently catches her and picks her up off her feet as the tears fall faster and she struggles to be strong and not make a sound.

She does not always succeed in this. She can recall days of loud cries, cries she knows hurt the ears her face was buried so close to. But thankfully, mercifully, he allows her this indiscretion until she can face the world once again. It is in this moment, when her sobs subside and she begins to pull away with red eyes and a shimmering face, that her eyes lock with his and she knows that this, that he, is worth every tear.

oooooooooooo

At times, he feels regret. And as the days pass by, it occurs more often than not.

He remembers the day he told her of his decision. The way her face twisted from one of kind understanding and wistfulness to horror at his determination.

Searches for immortality began the day he realized her could never live without her. Elixirs, potions... any clue sent him searching for a way to prolong Kagome's life. The years drifted by without result, and they continued to live and love while mindful of her inevitable death.

oooooooooooo

She and Rin cannot help but talk about him while he is gone.

Together, they support each other in ways only the two women who were ever close to Sesshoumaru's heart can.

Kagome does it to keep her sanity.

Rin does it to keep her faith.

To pass time, they speak in admiration of his strength, in reverence of his dependability, and in mocking gaiety of his quirks.

Neither woman has ever believed in the rumored ways to immortality.

Both have been subject to Sesshoumaru's unceasing search for it.

In the early days, Kagome would try her best to believe in each new miracle Sesshoumaru professed to finding a clue to. Soon it became too much.

Even if she only half-believed in whatever new evidence he found, she allowed herself to hope. And each time her hope came crashing down, she lost some of her ability to retain the emotion again.

So she stopped allowing herself to hope-- at least for that. She hoped for other things; mainly, that Sesshoumaru would give up-- even though she still cannot imagine her persevering counterpart doing so-- and accept the inevitable. As she had.

Kagome smiles wistfully when she thinks of this, of these times of the past. Of this firm but sad acceptance that until the moment she dies, he will not loose hope of a cure.

That is why she tries not to begrudge his absence, why she and Rin speak of him to make him seem near, and why they must laugh and talk about him together when they can-- because alone, these same memories would latch onto them and pull them down like a weight of unimaginable strength. And Kagome cannot afford to collapse until he returns.

So they survive together, and even as they once again laugh at the improbability of his newest discovery...

"If there was such a flower, surely you would have found it while you were traveling with Sesshoumaru, Rin." she smiles.

"Yes," Rin giggles, "can you imagine Sesshoumaru-sama realizing that the revered 'flower of imortality' once donned his hair?"

...some treacherous part of Kagome whispers _you didn't believe demons existed, either._

oooooooooooo

When he heard the rumor, she was already old. Her body began to fail her, and his heart twisted in unimaginable ways because of it.

But it gave him hope.

Sesshoumaru searched and came up with an incredible discovery, and his solution: a flower. A flower so rare, so delicate, but above all expectations lived in the most extreme places on the earth.

This nameless flower was said to bloom on the first day of winter for three weeks. To reap the immortal benefits, the flower must be gathered during this time. But only a single bloom grew every year, and never in the same place twice. From the depths of the sea to mountain heights to desert plains to grassy meadows, the flower could appear anywhere. And although everything was against him, Sesshoumaru never really had cared about the odds. So he left.

oooooooooooo

Each day gives Kagome two new numbers. One for how long he has been gone. One for the time until he returns.

There are times she cannot remember which two numbers she is on. _Has he been gone sixteen days or seventeen?_ Thankfully, she has Rin with her to keep track, and to tell her several times on days she forgets she has already asked.

She spends her days like this, observing what little she can see of the outside from her window, documenting Rin's movements in and out of her room-- _oh Rin, why do you waste your time on me?_-- and sleeping. The latter consumes an increasing amount of her time as the first number grows larger and the second, smaller.

As much as Kagome tries not to let her thoughts dwell on certain subjects for too long, there are some topics her runaway mind cannot ignore. So while she waits for her love to return, she mulls over why he left, full of frustration--at herself or him? she does not know-- and loneliness mingled with love and understanding.

She is ashamed at this when she sees Rin again, Rin who will smile sadly with understanding, as though she can read her every thought-- _am I so transparent?_-- and assure her that he will return.  
_  
Sesshoumaru_. When Rin leaves and she is alone, the name never fails to bring tears of longing to her eyes; no matter how angry she was with him the moment before.

oooooooooooo

At the close of day, when Sesshoumaru's search proves fruitless yet again, her image comes to him unbidden.

This picture is not one of the many he consciously calls forth while on his quest.

It is not of the first time he saw her; young, loud, naive, and clinging to his half-brother.

It is not of the scattered memories he has of her in the few years after that time; of her companions following her innate ability to find jewel shards, of defeating Naraku, of their first coincidental meeting sometime afterward, or of the many following.

It is not of her standing with the river flowing behind her before their first kiss.

It is not of the moment her eyes blinked open when he resurrected her with Tenseiga.

It is not of her laugh.

Not of her sleepy smile in the morning, nor of her sparkling eyes.

No. It is not any of these images. It is the one of her standing on the crest of a hill, tears streaming down her face, Rin beside her, holding her up-- or were they holding each other up?-- with a hand on her back and outstretched arm.

It comes and will not leave. This picture; the one of the day he left.

The memories follow shortly after.

They walk slowly. In her old age, she is still as stubborn as she was sixty years ago. Which is why he allows her to walk beside him on this day.

They come to the top of the hill and he pauses. He does not tell her, but she knows all the same.

This is where they part.

If he allows her to stay longer, he would be tempted to take her with him; although he knows this is an impossibility, the idea hangs in the air for a moment, and he can imagine them traveling together like they once did. She could always find something new on their travels to brighten a boring day. Her company was... pleasant, to say the least. She could--

But no. He looks down at her. At Kagome and her shrunken form, of her thinned gray hair occasionally interrupted by strands of black, giving glimpses of what it once was, and knows he must leave now. Now before it becomes impossible.

His arm wraps around her and she melts into him. He feels her weak hands grasping his clothes, tightening and relaxing, as if reminding herself that she needs to let go soon. So he holds her longer. 

_For her _he lies to himself.

It is really for him.

He knows she is surprised by this. He, whose public acts of affection are still as rare as an eclipse. And so he pulls back after a moment to kiss her lips, ignoring her small gasp.

And now he must leave.

He says, "I will return," and knows she hears his silent _wait for me._

Their eyes lock for the last time before he turns away, willing the slowly falling rain to wash away the scent of her tears.

oooooooooooo

Kagome dreams.

She dreams of jumping down a well. Of a wise and handsome monk with a wandering hand and a beautiful and strong demon-slayer who knew how to keep him in his place.

She dreams of a fox kit who clung to her and a jewel that guided her.

She dreams of a white-haired boy with cat-like ears. _Inuyasha _she places the name. _I loved him once_ she recalls in the fog of reminiscence.

She remembers the children of the unlikely couple, the fox kit grown, a jewel completed, and a hanyou who found peace.

Falling in and out of sleep, she contemplates these dreams and memories. They seem so long ago. Time has gone so fast.

One moment she remembers running from the centipede, grasping the arrow pinning Inuyasha. In the next moment she is completing the jewel, celebrating. Not a second later she is staring unblinking, unseeing ahead, eyes wide and hands shaking. The moment she realized she loved Sesshoumaru.

In her semi-sleep, Kagome sighs peacefully. If she could gather the energy, she would laugh.

She can still see herself alone that day, wandering aimlessly yet purposefully through the forest. Her mind races, and yet it is also blank. Abruptly stopping, collapsing, at the edge of a quiet river, Kagome is the epitome of paradoxes as she looks unfazed at the water rushing past.

She does not know how long he stood there, hidden, watching her. But she knows he is there, right behind her now. Her breath catches as she stands, turning to face him. As much as she hopes that he cannot see her trembling, she knows that he is cataloging every strand of her hair waving in the gentle breeze with his perceptive youkai eyes.

She lifts her eyes from his armor-covered chest up to the golden orbs staring to intently into her own. Her trembling increases to shaking and she panics at the moisture flooding her eyes. _No! No, I can't, I must be strong. Why am I so weak? _His eyes communicate for him without words-- so often without words-- and the depth of what she grasps there is too much, too overwhelming for this teenager from the future. But she moves forward anyway, closing the small breadth of space between them with her quivering legs until, if she was bold enough, she could reach out and touch the person of the Lord of the West. But she stays her hand, waiting. She does not know for what. She only knows that he needs this, this silence, this stillness. And somehow, she does as well.

They stand like this for a time, and it seems like time itself has no more meaning. The truth is much to the contrary; time means everything now. It is in this moment that Sesshoumaru realizes what Kagome will soon come to understand. She is already dying. Time has already stolen nearly two decades from the pair, and while she seems young, he knows even now that the end will come much faster than either of them will be prepared for.

It is with this thought that they mutually meet in their first bittersweet kiss.

oooooooooooo

There is a reason he started his search the farthest away from her.

He knew when after three days-- just three short days-- of his absence, her health turned from manageable to deplorable.

Every day since then, he has been aware of her waning health as if he were still sitting beside her.

Thankfully, some part of him planned for this, for this slight tug turned into a forceful pull that wants Kagome back in his arms. That is why he heads toward her now, slowly but surely, hunting for a miraculous blossom on the way.

oooooooooooo

_Kagome-chan. Kagome. Wake up, Kagome, you need to eat something._

Kagome blinks. She thought she heard... _oh._ She tries--and fails-- to smile as Rin gently props her up.

_Sweet Rin. Whatever would I do without you?_

Rin settles peacefully beside Kagome and helps her eat the brothy soup. "You know, he will have to come back after tomorrow," Rin tries to be cheerful. "He may even show up early."

Kagome inwardly smiles sadly. She knows him too well to believe that, as does Rin, but she hums a sort of agreement and the two sit together until sleep can claim Kagome once again.

oooooooooooo

He is close now. Close enough that memories from long ago-- yet it was not so far back-- stir within him. Sesshoumaru's mind is filled with them every time he happens across one of the many places they had been together in the past.

_Two days left._ The number repeats as a mantra in his head. Two. It is a number of hope and despair. It may bring about his failure, possibly his success, but either way, he can return to her then. Although he is almost single-minded in focusing on his goal, the anticipation of seeing her has grown daily. And now it is the only thing keeping him going.

oooooooooooo

When she opens her eyes, she feels better than she has in months.

The fog of sleep instantly lifts away, and the room seems brighter. This is partially explained when she miraculously manages to creep her way over to the window. Hesitantly moving the curtain aside, Kagome releases a sigh before melting into the chair behind her.

The sun is out.

Yes, it is only the beginning of winter, but lately the dreary weather has matched her mood quite well. Until today. She can see its bright and beautiful golden rays as they gently kiss the earth. She can feel its warmth descending on her, filling her with an indescribable emotion. It is not strength, not hope; and yet, maybe it is.

She is still too weak to be considered strong, although she cannot remember the last time she felt as strong as she is now.

But there is still no hope of recovery. Others may believe so, but she knows the truth. Beneath the facade of today, somewhere deep inside her, she knows that the last hours of her life have begun to tick away like her desk clock in the future--or is it in the past? Either way, she knows that when her eyes close tonight, this time she will not wake up.

The thought is not as frightening as it once was. She has no hope for anything different; merely a calm acceptance. Hope of more time would be misplaced. She has a better, and maybe less likely hope.

Kagome wants Sesshoumaru.

No. Not wants. _Needs_ to see him once more before the end. But she knows that he will not give up his futile search until the last possible moment. As much as she longs for him, she knows he could never live with himself if he was idle while there was still the slightest drop of hope left.

oooooooooooo

Sesshoumaru gets up from his brief rest, prepared for his last day of searching.

oooooooooooo

Rin enters an hour after Kagome, still sitting at the window, woke up.

She stops short after closing the door and freezes, eyes wide and blinking, as she locates Kagome.

"Kagome-chan! You're up!"

It is not until several minutes later that Kagome realizes Rin is holding something.

"Just a little something to freshen up the room." Rin smiles, setting her winter bouquet down, evidence of her perpetual love for nature. "It's hard to find different colors this time of year, but I tried," she continues, gesturing to the abundance of green, specked with fading orange and yellow lingering from fall.

In the midst of this, Kagome sees another color.

"What else is in there?"

Rin turns to the collection, frowning. "Well it seems like one of my anemones bloomed late, but it's not shaped quite right and its the wrong color," she shrugs and smiles. "It's better than nothing though, right?"

oooooooooooo

The pull to return to her is incessant.

He knows he must stop soon-- something tells him sooner, rather than later-- but he knows the remaining hours of daylight, and convinces himself yet again that he can wait.

oooooooooooo

Evening begins to close the day, and Kagome cannot help but be terrified at the idea of spending her last night without him.

oooooooooooo

Sesshoumaru decides while summoning his cloud that although he is not giving up, he needs to return home faster.

oooooooooooo

She sighs.

oooooooooooo

He flies.

oooooooooooo

Kagome feels his presence coming closer for some time before she allows herself to believe he might actually be returning.

She knows the instant he hesitates before opening the door.

She is sitting by the window once again, and slowly pulls herself up, grasping the back of the chair. Her feeble grip tightens, and she is glad for the support when he silently strides into the room. He is perfect, immaculate as always, she notes as he moves closer and he gently pulls her to him.

"Kagome."

The way he says her name still makes her as weak in the knees as it did when she was a teenager, and with the word, the reality that he is _here_, that she will not be alone, sets in.

As much as she fights it--_ what a way to spend my last night_-- she cannot help but cry.

When they finally separate, although they still cling to each other, they still do not speak. Their eyes speak for them-- something she has learned well in the brief years spent by his side.

Eventually, the two silently move to the bed Kagome occupied alone during his absence.

Her back leans against his chest, his hand held in her two as she revels in the warmth he brings to her cooling body.

They do not speak for hours-- there is no need to. Without their eyes to communicate, they speak through the way her hands weakly tighten against his one, or how he hunches over her small form, leaning his head down so the side of it touches her own, breathing her in with his sharp youkai senses. With so long-- yet so little-- time spent together, there are no words left, no words strong enough, descriptive enough, to communicate their love.

She briefly wonders of he ever closes his eyes when they sit like this-- she would never know-- to remember her as she was, instead of how she is. The thought is shoved away. How can she think of these things with the knowledge that her time is trickling away like water futilely held in cupped hands?

oooooooooooo

Sesshoumaru watches Kagome.

He has tried-- and failed-- to save her for the last time.

Although the frustration at his own failure, as well as its meaning, threatens to defeat him, he knows he can hold out his anger until...

He stops his line of thought. All he can do now is accept events as they come; he will not anticipate her leaving.

After having convinced himself for so long that he could _fix_ her, he cannot bring himself to admit that the last hours to do so are waning.

Her death had never been in his plans. When she began to lack hope, he made up for it with determination. And now... now as they sit together, he has no option but to face the night as though it were any other of the countless nights they have spent like this.

He moves slightly, his arm and hand gently tightening around her waist and her delicate hands. A comfort. An apology.

She replies by running her fingers over over his claws, his hand, the strips on his wrist. He cannot see her face, but knows there must be a soft smile upon it.

At some point his eyes tear away from her, and take in the room-- their room-- the one she has been confined in since his departure. The only new addition seems to be the piece of the outdoors he glanced over earlier. _Rin_. His mind supplies the benefactor.

The bouquet is simple and uninspiring. With his senses of sight and smell, he quickly, inattentively, notes the various plants it contains. He is brought to a pause though, eyes widening slightly, body stilling imperceptibly-- although he knows she can feel the change-- when he realizes there is a sent missing. There is no floral scent intertwined with that of the leafy plants and decorative twigs.

_Oh the irony..._

Kagome tilts her head back slightly, trying to glimpse his face.

"Sesshoumaru?"

oooooooooooo

Kagome sits beside Sesshoumaru on their bed.

She is exasperated, to say the least.

The last fifteen minutes have passed in a blur. In spite of her protests-- "Sesshoumaru, stop this, it's not worth it!"-- he was determined as always-- "I am not mistaken"-- and would not listen.

She knows that even now, as she waits, that he is once again proving his love for her through this. But right now, now as she feels her time fading away, she cannot help but be frustrated with this sudden turn of events, with this distraction from her last night with the one she loves unconditionally.

The feeling is almost enough to make her cry, but she pulls together her inner strength once again. She glances at the bouquet beside her, now devoid of its single flower, and remembers Sesshoumaru's quick instructions to Rin.

The door opens softly, and Rin pads in carrying a cup of tea.

Kagome feels Sesshoumaru watching carefully as Rin passes her the cup, and even as his hands close around her own in support, she shares a wary and sympathetic glance with Rin.

Looking down, she can see the flower, now steeped into a tea, and gives a small sigh. She will drink it for him, but she is afraid of what will happen when he is wrong. However much she is loath to leave him, she cannot bear the thought that once she does, he will be alone.

The tea is warm when it touches her lips, and she smells the mild herbs Rin added. It is neither too hot nor too cold; Rin always had been the best judge of temperature. Before she opens her mouth to take the first sip, she blinks hard, forcing back tears. Inside she desperately pleas _let it work, let something happen, let him succeed for even a moment._..

Kagome finishes her tea while Sesshoumaru watches with intent eyes. Removing the cup from her lips, she places a small smile on them and fixes him with a gentle _now what?_ look.

"Hn," he says, giving what is almost to elegant to be a shrug, but is a shrug nonetheless, "it may not work immediately." His tone is soft, and she decides to indulge him this one last time. _Yes Sesshoumaru, believe that it will work. Believe it for me... for I cannot._

She makes her smile wider and nods. "Yes, I'm sure it just needs time."

_Time._ She regrets it as soon as it leaves her mouth, and although he does not seem to take note of the word, she spends the next few hours with him cursing time in the back of her mind.

It is around then, as she and Sesshoumaru sit comfortably together once more, that she begins to feel strange. It begins as a tingle in her throat and by the time she begins to pull away from Sesshoumaru in confusion, her vision is quickly darkening from the corners and her head is spinning.

She fights her fall into darkness as her hands grasp onto his clothes. "Sesshou--" she begins to whisper his name when her voice grows silent, her body limp. The last thing she sees before her eyes completely darken are his golden eyes, peering at her in concern as he calls her name continuously, even though she can no longer hear it.

oooooooooooo

Kagome opens her eyes and her vision is clear. She blinks again, just in case she is imagining it, yet she can still see the sharp edges of the wood panels on the ceiling. She furrows her brows in confusion and realizes that the only way her vision could be restored were if she were dead. _But why am I still in the room?_

She brings her hand up to rub her eyes and as she does so, the back of her mind notes that it looks _different_ somehow. Regardless, she touches her hand to her face and pauses.

Her skin is smooth. Her mind begins to chant and she wonders, _could it be? is it possible?_

Trembling, she slowly caresses the silky side of her face and pulls her hand away, examining it with a critical eye. Although it is shaking, she can see that her once gnarled hands have regained their youthfulness.

With a sharp intake of breath, she sits up with an agility she has not possessed in years, and swings her head to look at Sesshoumaru lying next to her. Her movements have awoken him and he stares frozen and wide-eyed at her. Her eyes quickly, earnestly search out his, looking for answers.

This only lasts for a moment as Sesshoumaru, trance-like, sits up to face her and reaches his hand out to rest on the side of her face; the one her own hand had discovered just moments before. From his awed expression, Kagome considers that maybe the impossible _is_ possible.

"Kagome." His deep baritone voice speaks her name in little more than a whisper.

Her mind whirls. She is overcome with emotion and struck with worry. _What has happened? Did it work? Was he right? What do I look like? _Her breath hitches in her throat and she grasps his hand with her own, squeezing tightly as though it would wake her from the dream.

"I-- I have to look." she breathes out in a quivering voice.

At his nod, she dashes with what should be an impossible speed to the mirror. In front of it, her eyes grow wide and her hand once again finds its way to her face, covering her open mouth.

"I don't believe it," she whispers as he stands behind her. "Am I-- am I immortal?" she asks incredulously, turning to face her tenacious lover.

"Hn," and despite the characteristic, single-syllable answer, she can still discern the wonder in his tone.

Kagome turns once again to the mirror, analyzing herself closer than before.

The lines on her face and wrinkles on her skin have smoothed. Her hair has returned to its original, healthy black. She no longer feels the aches in her joints or pain in her back when she moves.

Kagome backs up to Sesshoumaru and looks at them together in the mirror. She has never been able to match up to him, to his innate youkai beauty, and she never will. But as she sees herself with him, somehow they simply _fit _together_._

Although she has been healed of the ailments of old age, she is most certainly not the youthful girl she was when they first met. But now she possesses a mature, ageless beauty.

Before she realizes it, tears, an outlet for the joy bubbling inside her, unknowingly pour down her face.

She turns back to him and wraps her arms tightly around his neck, molding herself closer as his arm tightly winds around her back.

Tilting her head back to look at him, hair cascading down her back, his eyes dance as brightly as hers and she repeats the phrase that has been circling in her mind.

"You did it," she tells him as salty tears continue to fall down her face, neck, into her mouth, and even occasionally landing on him. "Sesshoumaru, you did it." Although she knows she will soon feel guilt for her prior disbelief, all she feels now is incredible joy and love for the one who despite all, never, _ever_ gave up.

Slowly, as they cling to each other, Kagome processes what this means for her-- for both of them. _Immortal._ She can hardly believe it. In spite of her past determination to not dwell on her inevitable death, she could not help but note the passage of time and the "lasts" she instinctively counted: the last time they traveled together, the last time she ran through a meadow, the last time she cooked her own food, the last time she saw Sesshoumaru with clear eyes... They are erased. She has time-- so much time-- to be with and support and love Sesshoumaru as centuries pass.

One word imprints itself above the cacophony in Kagome's mind: _Forever._

"Forever," she says, looking up at him. "Sesshoumaru, we have forever."

"Hn," he agrees as their hands twine together between them. "I will be with you until the end of time."

"As will l," she vows.

Kagome marvels at her own strength as she disentangles their hands and lifts herself up with the combined support of their arms-- her two and his one. They meet in a kiss for a moment before Kagome pulls away, her forehead resting against his.

Before reconnecting their lips, she breathes one word into the space between them.

"_Forever._"

oooooooooooo

A/N: Wow. It's finally finished! I cannot tell you how much fun I had writing this! It came out of nowhere, and I took waaay too much time writing it (really, _way_ too much time), but I love the end result!

A few things:

I love Rin to death and had to include her in this piece, but let's assume she has a nice, human husband and therefore is not in need of immortality. (Or Sess will just find it again for her...)

Almost everything about this story, from the plot to the tense I wrote it in to the style was an experiment-- one I'm so glad I tried!

I honestly cannot believe I wrote this in present tense. There are some parts of the story I wanted to change it, but it's still there! My reasoning behind using present was that I wanted to give the impression of time ticking by as the story progresses, as well as the importance of each moment. Thus, whenever possible I tried to make flashbacks in present tense as well. I'm sure I made a few mistakes along the way, but I hope that they aren't too distracting!

Yes, all sentence-structure errors are intentional (unless I missed some! if that happened, I'm sorry!).

Your reviews are greatly appreciated and bring bright rays of sunshine into my life! :) Please Review!

~Lily


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